The proliferation of social interactions on the internet has introduced numerous opportunities to offer insights into people's interests and activities. A recent set of social applications or features has provided the next step beyond status updates, product or interest ratings and social sharing networks; the ability to describe future intentions of behaviors or activities offers a unique view into the explicit statements someone makes that can then be leveraged by others into offering support to that stated intention.
A technology analyst in the social media space, Jeremiah Owyang, has produced a taxonomy that describes where this intention space lies available at the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/12/04/when-real-time-is-not-fast-enough-the-intent-based-web/. Owyang lists the “Intention Web” as “Information that provides explicit predictions of who will do what next, although it's not happened yet.” Examples include Upcoming.org, Facebook events, Plancast. Further examples include Tweetmeme, Topsy, Sency, and OneRiot. Owyang further explains the opportunities in this area as:                People can connect to each other, improving experience. Businesses can provide a more contextualized experience for customers or prospects using Social CRM        
Owyang recognizes the complexity of the problem he describes by stating the challenges:                Explicit intentions may not be true, the future is always uncertain. Companies can barely keep up with real time web—let alone predict the future.        
Brian Solis takes Jeremiah's concept and extends it, providing a description at the URL: www.briansolis.com/2010/01/the-predictive-web which states:                Suddenly the predictive Web comes into focus. The innovation that materializes into products and platforms creates an ecosystem that wires the individual human algorithm to the technology that will work on our behalf to mine and present data, content, products, people and companies that match what interests us based on who we are—not solely derived from what we have in common. Just because we viewed a common item, purchased a product or service based on our click patterns or share contacts within networks, doesn't imply, nor does it guarantee, that we share interests, ideas, and ambitions. Therefore, the ability to predict is only as accurate as the technology that focuses on who we are defined by all we do.        
Importantly, neither Owang nor Solis offer suggestions for how to make use of the intention data provided in this social medium, nor do they suggest how to interpret the quality of the intent while they specifically caution about the potential problems of intent quality.